1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a level conversion circuit, and more particularly to a logical level conversion circuit for executing a conversion of an input logical level to a signal level for a logical integrated circuit formed on a gallium arsenide (GaAs) substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
A logical integrated circuit device (GaAs IC) formed on a gallium arsenide substrate is drawing attention especially as a super-high speed device to be substituted for a silicon ECL high-speed integrated circuit device (Si-ECL IC) in view of its high-speed characteristic due to high electron mobility of gallium arsenide. In such a high-speed IC, it becomes necessary to provide a logical level conversion circuit in the input and output circuit in order to realize matching between the logical level of a GaAs IC and the logical level of a circuit connected thereto. For instance, in the case of connecting a Si-ECL IC to a circuit formed in a GaAs IC having a super-high speed characteristic, a logical level conversion from the logical level (-0.82 V, -1.82 V) of the Si-ECL IC to the logical level (-1.6 V, -2.4 V) of the logical gate in the GaAs IC is carried out in the input circuit of the GaAs IC. In the input circuit of a GaAs IC, there is required an exact level conversion with high accuracy of logical amplitude in the logical level conversion circuit for the reason that there are generated variations in the logical amplitude due to the deviation of the logical level threshold due to a manufacturing error of transistors in the input circuit.
The prior art logical level conversion circuit for carrying out logical level conversion from the Si-ECL IC to the GaAs IC has a constitution in which there are series-connected, between a high potential source and a low potential source serving as power sources for the GaAs IC, a source follower field-effect transistor (FET) applied with the input logical level of the Si-ECL IC as its gate input a level shift diode which shifts the voltage by a prescribed voltage in the forward direction, and a current source causing a prescribed current to flow between the high potential source and the low potential source. In this arrangement, a converted logical level is derived at the junction of the level shift diode and the current source. Namely, a logical level conversion part consisting of a source follower FET and a level shift diode which supply a voltage obtained by subjecting a prescribed high potential to a prescribed voltage drop and a current control part which uses a current source that causes a prescribed current flow between the high potential source and the low potential source are connected in series. The logical level of the GaAs IC is obtained from the junction of this series connection.
In such a logical level conversion circuit, a source follower FET, a level shift diode and a current source are connected in series so that the shift of an input logical level is determined by the voltage between the gate and source of the source follower FET and the forward voltage drop of the level shift diode, the forward voltage drop being determined by the value of the constant current supplied by the current source. Now, this current value varies in accordance with the fluctuations in various characteristics of the elements constituting the current source, due to dispersion in their manufacture. Moreover, the voltage between the gate and source of the source follower FET and each of the forward voltage drops of the level shift diodes vary also with the dispersion in the manufacture of each of these elements. Since, however, these variations cannot be controlled artifically, there arises an inconvenience that it is not possible to supply an input signal with rigorously set logical level to the GaAs IC. In an integrated circuit device for high-speed operation such as the GaAs IC, margins of the threshold values have to be set in general to small values so that there exists a drawback in that the operational characteristics of the integrated circuit are deteriorated by the variations in the logical level of the input from the logical level conversion circuit.